Staff Writer
CONNOR — With their roots in Aroostook soil for five generations, W&W farms has been growing potatoes with green-thumb power; on Wednesday, they gave the thumbs-up to green power with the installation of an ARE (Abundant Renewable Energy) 10 KW turbine on an almost 100 foot tall self-supporting tower.
Photo contributed by Jill Leavitt
Going to great heights for his business, Wade Leavitt carefully completed installation of a new 10 KW ARE turbine at W&W Farms in Connor last Wednesday.
According to W&W Farms Manager and OTGEA (Off the Grid Energy Alternatives, LLC.) owner Wade Leavitt, the unit should produce about 2,000 kilowatt hours a month. Hooked up to the machine shop at potato storage structure on their farm, Wade estimates that the turbine will produce enough energy to meet two-thirds of the energy needed to operate the two buildings.
Wade and his father, Wayne Leavitt, sell their potatoes to McCain Foods, who then distribute the vegetables to McDonalds, Wendy’s, Friendly’s, and other areas of demand; growing ‘green’ potatoes is not only financially feasible for W & W Farms, it means greener business for where their potatoes end up.
“By having some green energy on our end, it looks good for them also,” Wade explained.
With 44 year’s of farming experience under his belt, fourth generation farmer Wayne Leavitt is excited about the addition of wind power, stating that one reason the approximately 900-acre farm has been interested in producing green energy was for the long-term savings a turbine can offer.
“This is the first time our company has done an install of this size,” Wade said. OTGEA has fitted turbines with a variety of locations from small households to small businesses; fitting a turbine to the needs and landscape of a property is complex and, if an unrealistic fit is made, can result in tremendous customer dissatisfaction.
OTGEA has actually had to refuse people who were interested in purchasing turbines because their site was not conducive to wind power.
“I went to the site, surveyed it, and had to tell them that they had an 8 mile-an-hour wind resource; that’s barely enough to start the machine,” he said.
Photo contributed by Jill LeavittWade Leavitt looks at the new turbine at W&W Farms in Connor that stands over 100 feet tall.
While refusing customers may seem to be an interesting way of conducting a business, OTGEA would rather not install a tower in a resource-lacking location; he even mentioned that he has to divert his eyes when he drives by various towers that have been questionably installed.
“It puts a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and they all look poorly upon the wind industry,” he explained, “but not every site is the same.”
W&W Farms has high hopes for their new turbine, and Wade thinks that there’s a lot of areas around where wind power would generate a lot of opportunity, “especially in the farming community because they’re in such open territories, which creates optimum conditions,” Wade said.
“Instead of an impulse buy, customers really need to think their purchase through,” he added. “You need to be able to trust your installer to give you the advice you need and, if not, you need to do enough research independently.” He suggested customers visit the American Wind Energy Association at http://www.AWEA.org.
“They have more information than any person could ever stand to look at,” he joked, adding that the site provides a buyer’s guide as well as basic wind power principles, such as making sure your turbine is at least 25 feet higher than anything within a 250-foot radius.
According to Wade, the towers he chose to promote are generally on the taller side for a couple of reasons.
First, there is a state rebate program in place, and while funds are limited, a turbine must meet certain requirements (including height) in order to quality for the state incentives.
“For the cost of making a taller tower, it actually pays for itself because you qualify for the state incentives at that point,” he explained, “as long as you’re willing to do a little bit of paperwork and send in the application.”
Photo contributed by Jill Leavitt
Wayne Leavitt, a fourth generation farmer, stands next to his son, Wade, who is a fifth generation farmer. The two own W&W Farms in Connor, which recently erected a new wind turbine.
W&W Farms qualified for the full spectrum of incentives, which means that the tower should pay for itself in 8 to 10 years; with the life expectancy of the average tower being 25 to 30 years, it looks as if the tower will be a financial windfall for the farm, providing ‘free’ energy and creating a smaller ecological footprint.
While the benefits of wind power for the farm seem bountiful, Wade acknowledges that an 8-to-10 year payoff period is atypical, and depends on the wind resource holding true; wind is, after all, a variable.
It generally takes 15 to 17 years for a turbine to pay for itself with no incentives.
While that may seem like a long time, Bergey, one of the manufacturers that OTGEA purchases turbines from, has had turbines running for over 30 years.
“Obviously they’re machines and no machine is perfect,” Wade said, “but generally the businesses [OTGEA purchases turbines and towers from] are relatively small and quality control is pretty intense.”
Additional information about OTGEA can be found by visiting their Web page at http://www.OTGEA.com.
